Protective Services delivered during Carnival, says Griffith

For­mer Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith has praised the coun­try’s Pro­tec­tive Ser­vices for their per­for­mance dur­ing the Car­ni­val sea­son, say­ing their ef­forts kept the na­tion safe while cel­e­bra­tions un­fold­ed.

In a me­dia re­lease, Grif­fith said of­fi­cers in uni­form of­ten face crit­i­cism be­cause of the ac­tions of a few, which can be deeply de­mor­al­is­ing to those who serve with ho­n­our. “This Car­ni­val sea­son, our Pro­tec­tive Ser­vices proved their worth. While the na­tion cel­e­brat­ed, they worked tire­less­ly, in in­tense heat, un­der im­mense pres­sure, to keep cit­i­zens and vis­i­tors safe,” he said.

He ex­tend­ed con­grat­u­la­tions to the Po­lice Ser­vice, De­fence Force, Fire Ser­vice, Prison Ser­vice and sup­port­ing agen­cies, in­clud­ing thou­sands of pri­vate se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers who worked in bands and fetes through­out the sea­son. “Your dis­ci­pline, re­straint, and pro­fes­sion­al­ism did not go un­no­ticed,” he said. Grif­fith al­so wel­comed the vis­i­ble pres­ence of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty lead­er­ship on the ground.

“It was al­so en­cour­ag­ing to see lead­er­ship present on the ground, Min­is­ters of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty and De­fence along­side the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice and the Chief of De­fence Staff, lead­ing by ex­am­ple,” he said. He added that the suc­cess­ful out­come al­so re­flect­ed the work of those who lead the Pro­tec­tive Ser­vices, in­clud­ing the Chair of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil and her line Min­is­ters.

“Your ob­vi­ous im­mense sup­port to the op­er­a­tional arms, def­i­nite­ly paid off” he said. Grif­fith al­so of­fered spe­cial com­men­da­tion to the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er, the Chief of De­fence Staff, the three Deputy Com­mis­sion­ers of Po­lice for Ad­min­is­tra­tion, In­tel­li­gence and Op­er­a­tions, as well as Gold, Sil­ver and Bronze Com­man­ders. “Your hard work and ded­i­ca­tion to du­ty was in­stru­men­tal to the mis­sion be­ing ac­com­plished” he said. He ac­knowl­edged that mis­takes may have been made by a few in re­cent times, but said re­cent op­er­a­tions spoke for them­selves.

“Yes, mis­takes may have been made by a few in re­cent times, but If it is per­ceived that you are as good as your last per­for­mance, based on how the Pro­tec­tive Ser­vices op­er­at­ed through­out the Car­ni­val sea­son, then they were great,” he said. “To every of­fi­cer who stood post while oth­ers cel­e­brat­ed: thank you. The coun­try is safer be­cause of you.”